The California Historical Society collects materials of enduring historical and cultural value in support of its mission to inspire and empower Californians to make the past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives. In our North Baker Research Library, we hold some fifty thousand books and pamphlets, four thousand manuscript collections, half a million photographs, as well as ephemera,…

The archaeological site material in the museum’s collections dates from approximately 8,000 thousand years ago to the early 1800s. This material includes artifacts from the  indigenous people known as the Tongva who were living on Catalina Island - which they called Pimu - when the Spanish arrived in 1542. Also in the collections are approximately two thousand items dating from the 1880s to the…

Collections include 5,000+ oral histories in 250 projects, representing geographical, ethnic, political, religious, and social communities of selected Orange County, Los Angeles, Southern California, and Western US locales.

The Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections & Archives Library is the principle repository for the preservation and access of the Leatherby Libraries’ rare and unique collections. Special Collections holds rare books, manuscripts, maps and collections of enduring value while the Archives preserves the history of the university and the Chapman family. The department includes the Dan…